MINNEAPOLIS — The family of Daunte Wright, along with several community members, held a press conference in downtown Minneapolis on Monday to address the media before jury selection begins in the trial of Kim Potter. Potter, a former Brooklyn Center police officer, is charged with fatally shooting Wright during a traffic stop.
Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was killed in April 2021 when police were attempting to take him into custody after pulling him over for having expired tabs. Potter, who is white, pulled out her gun and shot him once in the chest. Body camera footage captured the shooting, and Potter later said she had meant to pull out her Taser instead of her firearm.
Potter faces both first and second-degree manslaughter charges for the fatal shooting.
On Monday, Wright's family, joined by attorneys and other families of people who were fatally shot by police, called for justice in Wright's death.
Daunte's mother Katie Wright thanked the community for the support her family has received ahead of the trial.
"Everybody who's been there for us, standing with us, on one of the worst days of our life, one of the worst months going forward of our life, we really thank you and we appreciate this," she said.
The founder of Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence, Toshira Garraway Allen, said they are "demanding" Potter be held accountable to the highest extent of the law.
Courteney Ross, George Floyd's girlfriend and Daunte Wright's former teacher, also spoke at the event. She said Wright was a "joy" and that his smile would light up a room. Floyd was murdered by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020.
Ross also expressed her grief over learning about his death in the midst of the trial of Derek Chauvin, and echoed the call for accountability.
"The fact that Kim Potter garnished a weapon for a routine traffic stop when the entire world was looking at racist cops under a microscope proved to me that Kim Potter was so brash and brazen that she murdered a Black man with no thought," Ross said.
Hugging Katie Wright, Ross tearfully added, "It's a pain like no other, everyone."
The Wright's family attorney Jeff Storms said Potter facing charges at all is a "step" toward justice, but he said true accountability will mean a conviction. He added that jury selection could play a big role in that.
"We're going to watch jury selection, and see if the defendants do what we saw in the Ahmaud Arbery trial. Are they going to try to have the whitest jury possible? But even if that's the case, if there is a white jury, is a Minnesota white jury prepared to hold a white officer accountable under these circumstances?" Storms asked. "It's going to tell a lot of us about where we stand as a state. What you're staring at is a lot of really, really important history."
Jury selection in the trial of Kim Potter begins at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 30. KARE 11 will live stream gavel-to-gavel coverage on kare11.com, the KARE 11 app and KARE 11 YouTube page.